To Flash or not to Flash

You may have heard the phrase “Flash is bad”. As a web designer, I’m not a huge fan of flash. For one flash is difficult to maintain, takes a long time for pages to load and is useless for getting found by search engines.

Having said that there are instances where flash does serve a purpose and when used well it can enhance a website.

The key to using flash properly is to incorporate flash elements in your web pages instead of creating the entire website in flash.

We recently worked with Patricia Gray on redesigning her website. Established in 1986, Patricia Gray is an award winning designer. Her previous website was built several years ago and was in need of a re-design.

The Problem
Because the website was built in flash it was impossible to modify the content. Think of a flash as a pdf document. If you were to take a pdf document and wanted to modify the text or the design of the page, you wouldn’t be able to, unless you had the original word document, quark file or whatever source file was used to create the pdf. The same principle applies to flash. Without the original source file, it was impossible to modify the flash. In the case of Patricia Gray’s website, it was easier to start over.

TIP: If you decide that an entire flash site is what you need, make sure to ask the web designer if you can have the source file, (.fla). These will allow you to move on to another web designer if you need too.

Another disadvantage of using flash is the lack of keywords. If you were to link a pdf document to your website, the search engine spiders will not go into the pdf and read the content. The same is true for a flash file. If you decide to insert your bio and your services in a flash file, no one will ever find that information.

WARNING: Inserting keywords in your meta tag will never allow you to overcome this problem. Search engine spiders these days to not read meta tags.

Should you use flash at all?
In my opinion flash is best used when the visual elements of your website are much more important than content. The photography, fashion, interior design and graphic design industries are all incredibly visual and great candidates for the flash.

The Solution
When redesigning Patricia Gray’s website, we tried simply using thumbnails and JavaScript to create her portfolio, but the result proved flat and uninspiring. Her high calibre designs could only be complemented with the use of flash. To ensure that the site is accessible by search engines, we only used flash for the projects section and home page teaser.

The Result
Patricia Gray’s website are visually stunning, has enough content to satisfy search engines and will only require changing the flash when the portfolio changes thus making it much easier to maintain.